Wednesday, February 29, 2012

History of A.A. - The Four Absolutes - Again!

The “Four Absolutes” of A.A.
were cherished “yardsticks” in earliest A.A.—standards for determining right
behavior as measured through God’s eyes. And A.A.’s Co-founder Dr. Bob made
that clear.[1] The Four Absolutes were
Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love.

Robert E. Speer: The
time-line for the recovery origins of these principles begins with
Presbyterian missionary leader Robert E. Speer. In 1902, Speer published The
Principles of Jesus.[2]Chapter 6 was titled
“Jesus and Standards.”[3] And Speer there spelled
out “some” moral principles that could be applied to determine and practice
what was “right or wrong.” Speer said the teachings of Jesus set up absolute
principles which didn’t allow men to measure their conduct by what they “thought”
was right or wrong. Jesus, he said, enabled men to have absolute standards of
conduct by which they were able to “know whether it is right or wrong, drag
it into Jesus’ presence, and see how He looks at it, and how it looks to
Him.”[4] Some have erroneously
stated that Speer fashioned the four standards from the teachings in the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to 7). But his citations were much more broad.
Speer said that Jesus taught in a practical way in order to make people
understand, and the illustrations Jesus used were themselves such as to make
some principle perfectly clear. The teachings set up standards (Mark 9:33;
Matt. 5:34, 37; 6:16; Mark 7:15; Luke 9:60). Perfection was his standard
(Matt. 5:48). He had attained it (John 8:29). He demanded it. Right is to be
right. Thinking it right or thinking it wrong does not make a thing right or
wrong. Jesus, said Speer, set up an absolute standard of truth. He
said, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and
came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not
understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your
father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and
the father of it (John 8:42-44). Jesus set up an absolute standard of
unselfishness. Speer pointed to Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
ransom for many. Jesus set up an absolute standard or purity. He
tolerated no uncleanness whatsoever. . . . A hand or an eye, outer or inner
sin, must be sacrificed to the claims of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:29,
30). Jesus set up an absolute standard of love. Jesus said, “A new
commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another (John 13:34),

Henry B. Wright: Next in
line comes Yale’s Professor Henry B. Wright. And in 1909, Wright published The
Will of God and a Man’s Lifework.[5] Wright devoted this
teaching to the relation of the act of surrender of self in doing God’s will.
He contended that willingness to do God’s will is a necessary condition for
knowledge of it. He pointed to the Bible and Nature as the parts of God’s
will that every one may know.[6] Wright emphasized that
God reveals His Universal Will for the world in Jesus, the Living Word, and
in the Bible, the Written Word.[7] Then he asked if there
were “absolute standards of right and wrong; how Jesus found out the
particular will of God for himself, and said Jesus “always did the things
which were pleasing to God.” Citing Scripture, Wright pointed to verses in
the Bible dealing with purity (Matthew 5:29), unselfishness (Luke 14:33);
honesty (Luke 16:11), and love (John 15:2). Wright explained that Jesus was
sure of God’s presence and guidance; and Wright reconstructed the “absolute
standards of right and wrong” from the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.
Wright quoted Robert E. Speer as follows:

Mr. Robert
E. Speer has reconstructed from the teaching of Jesus the four standards in
regard to which he never allowed himself an exception and with reference to
which his teaching is absolute and unyielding. Jesus gives us no direct
teaching in regard to such things as smoking, drinking, card playing,
theatre, dancing, etc. He recognized that some men could decide one way and
others just the opposite on like questions and yet both sides be true Christians.
But in regard to four things there was no such option. A man must be pure, he
must be honest, he must be unselfish, he must express himself in deeds of
love or else he cannot see the kingdom of God. There is no exception to be
made on these four counts.[8]

Having discussed many
relevant verses applicable to the “Universal Will of God,” Wright then
explained that God also has a Particular Will for each individual man, He
suggested it rested on the “Fourfold Touchstone of Jesus and the Apostles.”
He suggested, as to the four touchstones, that there be a test of Purity,
Honesty, Unselfishness, and Love. He said that obedience provided the
assurance as to one’s duty and power to achieve results. Wright illustrated:

To every
problem, great or small, which presents itself in a small matter like one’s
bearing in a game of sport, in a large matter like the choice of a life career,
the Christian who is absolutely surrendered to God asks himself this
question: “Is the step which I had planned to take an absolutely pure one? Is
it an absolutely honest one? Is it the most unselfish one? Is it the fullest
possible expression of my love? If it fails to measure up to any one of these
four standards it cannot be God’s will and I must not take it, no matter what
the refusal may cost me in suffering, mental or physical. As he holds his
instrument of apprehension, the human will, resolutely to this standard, the
Christian is conscious of its becoming strong both to know and to do God’s
will and there comes the undoubted, the compelling conviction which guides
and impels him forward. . . . The mysterious meeting place in the prepared
and willing heart between the human and divine where precisely the will is
finally moved into line with God’s of these things knoweth no man, save only
the spirit of God.[9]

Discussing each of the four
“absolutes” in turn, and using purity as the first, he proposed the
following: “Is the step which I had planned to take an absolutely pure one?
If it is not, it cannot be God’s will for that life.” And as to each of the
four absolute standards, Wright would thus look at the question in terms of
purity versus impurity, and then cite applicable Bible verses that provided
definitions of God’s will, for example, as to fornication, uncleanness, passion,
evil desire, adultery. Furthermore, each absolute—purity, unselfishness,
honesty, and love—was to be related to the other three so that if something
were deemed pure, it must also be absolutely unselfish, absolutely honest,
and absolutely an act of love.

Frank N. D. Buchman and the
Oxford Group:

The Oxford Group’s Four
Absolutes can be found in the speeches of its founder Frank Buchman.[10] They can also be found
in books about Buchman, descriptions of Oxford Group principles, in Rev. Sam
Shoemaker’s writings, in A.A. General Services Conference-approved books
discussing the Oxford Group, in Anne Smith’s writings, and in some Oxford
Groups today.[11] As stated, the
historical chain begins with Robert E. Speer. Speer’s discussion and cited
verses were expanded by Henry B. Wright. And, according to Oxford Group
activist and long-time employee T. Willard Hunter, Henry B. Wright was the
most influential force in Frank Buchman’s life, other than Buchman’s mother.
Buchman’s biographer Garth Lean explained:

The moral
standards which he [Buchman] used as a test of directing thoughts also became
central to Buchman’s life and teaching: he took them as measuring rods for
daily living. Here again he was indebted to Henry Wright. “The absolutes” had
originally been set out, as a summary of Christ’s moral teaching, by Robert
E. Speer in his book, The Principles of Jesus. Buchman had several
times heard Speer preach at Mount Airy, but it was in Wright’s book that he
first found the summarized standards “in regards of which,” Wright
maintained, “Christ’s teaching is absolute and unyielding.” Wright defined
them as “the four-fold touchstone of Jesus and the apostles” and maintained
that an individual could apply them “to every problem, great or small which
presents itself . . . if (anything) fails to measure up to any one of these
four it cannot be God’s will.”[12]

Reverend Samuel M.
Shoemaker, Jr. became a colleague of Frank Buchman’s in the earliest 1920’s.
He was called in 1925 to be rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York.
He shortly became the Oxford Group’s most prolific author, Frank Buchman’s
chief lieutenant in the United States, and actually provided space in Calvary
House (adjacent to the church) for the Oxford Group’s American headquarters
where Buchman himself lived when he was in the United States. Shoemaker also
became a close friend of Bill Wilson, taught Wilson most of the spiritual
principles that were embodied in the Twelve Steps, and was dubbed a
“cofounder of A.A.” by Wilson himself.[13] Wilson actually asked
Shoemaker to write the 12 Steps, but Sam declined, saying they should bewritten by an alcoholic, namely Bill.

But Shoemaker did write
extensively on the importance of the Four Absolutes.[14] And the following is
indicative of his view:

We must get
to the point of whether the man is “willing to do his will” in all areas.
Take the four standards of Christ: absolute honesty, absolute purity,
absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. When people’s lives are wrong,
they are usually wrong on one or more of these standards. . . . By our own
frank honesty about ourselves and our willingness, under God as He guides, to
share anything in our own experience that will help the other person, and by
the willingness to ask God-inspired questions of them that carry the matter
right down to the roots, we shall get deep enough to know the real problems .
. . . If the person is honest with himself and with God, he will be honest
with us and be ready to take the next step, which is a decision to surrender
these sins, with himself, wholly to God.[15]

Early A.A.: In a few words,
we can summarize how the Four Absolutes were handled in early Alcoholics
Anonymous.

Bill
Wilson: Wilson was actively involved in Oxford Group activities from late
1934 through August, 1937. He and his wife attended many meetings, attended
Oxford Group house parties, and met Frank Buchman and Rev. Shoemaker and other
leaders such as Rev. W. Irving Harris and his wife Julia. Bill himself was
much involved in an Oxford Group team in late 1935 and early 1936. Bill said
he had heard plenty about the Four Absolutes. However, his wife Lois claimed,
the “Oxford Group kind of kicked us out [because] she and Bill were not
considered ‘maximum’ by the groupers.”[16] By October 30, 1940,
Bill said: “I am always glad to say privately that some of the Oxford Group
presentation and emphasis upon the Christian message saved my life. Yet it is
equally true that other attitudes of the O.G. nearly got me drunk again, and
we long since discovered that if we were to approach alcoholics successfully,
these [attitudes] would have to be abandoned.” [17] He wrote a laundry list
of 8 criticisms of the Oxford Group, including a condemnation of the four
absolutes, saying “when the word ‘absolute’ was put in front of these
attributes, they either turned people away by the hundreds or gave a
temporary spiritual inflation resulting in collapse.”[18] Despite these remarks,
Wilson did another turnabout. According to one historian, Wilson wrote in
1960:

In the old
days of the Oxford Groups, they were forever talking about the Four
Absolutes—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love—trying to get too good by
Thursday. . . . Absolutes in themselves are not necessarily destructive.
Every sound theological system contains them. When we say that our destiny is
to grow in the likeness and image of God, we are stating a healthy relation
between a relative and an absolute state of affairs. Therefore when writing
the Twelve Steps, it was necessary to include some sort of absolute value or else
they wouldn’t have been theologically sound. . . . That could have been
unfortunate and as misleading as we found them in the Oxford Group emphasis.
So in Steps Six and Seven, and in the use of the word God, we did include
them.[19]

Dr. Bob
Smith: His position was and remained the opposite of Bill’s. In his last
major address to AAs, Dr. Bob said:

The four
absolutes, as we called them, were the only yardsticks we had in the early
days, before the Steps. I think the absolutes still hold good and can be
extremely helpful. I have found at times that a question arises, and I want
to do the right thing, but the answer is not obvious. Almost always, if I
measure my decision carefully by the yardsticks of absolute honesty, absolute
unselfishness, absolute purity, and absolute love, and it checks up pretty
well with those four, then my answer can’t be very far out of the way.[20]

Dr. Bob’s
wife Anne Ripley Smith: In her journal from which she shared with early AAs
and their families, Anne spoke repeatedly about how to apply the four
standards. She said:

Test your
thoughts. It is possible to receive suggestions from your subconscious mind.
Check your thoughts by the four standards. . . . Make the moral test. 4
standards. . . . Basis of an interview. Is a challenge on the four standards.
. . . Why I had been absolutely honest but not living. . . . Follow
Christ’s absolute commandment. . . . Absolute honesty demands that we
no longer wear a mask. . . . Sharing. . . It is being honest even after it
hurts. . . . Every time we register aloud the new attitude and change of
heart with absolute honesty, another bridge is burned behind us and another
stake is driven in to mark our progress. . . . Check your life constantly by
the four absolutes.[21]

Clarence H.
Snyder who founded Cleveland A.A.: Many might conclude that when Clarence
Snyder (who got sober in February, 1938, and remained sober until his death
years later) founded Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio, he took the
best of A.A. there. The best at that time! He embraced the Bible, the Four
Absolutes, the Big Book, and the Twelve Steps. AAs achieved a 93% success
rate.[22] Clarence said:

New people
were told they had to read the Bible—The King James Version of the Bible.
They were instructed to do this on a daily basis. Clarence said that
newcomers were also told to read The Upper Room and to read the Sermon
on the Mount by Emmet Fox. Clarence said the new people were then
instructed on the Four Standards. These were the Biblical principles the
Oxford Group people had taken from the teachings of Jesus Christ found in the
Bible. These “Four Standards” were also called the “Four Absolutes”—Absolute
Honesty, Unselfishness, Love and Purity.[23]

Clarence frequently took
newcomers through the newly written Twelve Steps in two days time. He wrote a
pamphlet on going through the Steps to guide them.[24]

What Happened to the Four
Absolutes?

Bill Wilson framed the
“moral inventory” items in Step Four. In that Step and in Steps Ten and
Eleven, he proposed testing conduct for resentment, fears, selfishness, and
harms done to others. He also claimed that the A.A. program called for
grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty.[25] The Absolutes, as such,
simply vanished from the Big Book program of recovery. What can be said is
that those, like myself, who have visited A.A. meetings and members all over
the United States and reviewed thousands of pieces of A.A. literature,
frequently encounter mention of the Four Absolutes, especially among those
who have great respect and affection for Dr. Bob or Clarence Snyder. However,
the idea of relating each of the standards to a teaching of Jesus has usually
been replaced by pamphlets or discussions of what, in the opinion of the
particular writer, constitutes conduct consistent with this or that absolute.
Also, the writers and speakers often omit the critical part of the Four
Absolute tests. Those applying them were also to look to God and His Word for
illustration and understanding and also to ask God for the wisdom in applying
them to proposed action (James 1:5-8).

[11]
For a thorough review of these statements, the supporting bibliography, and a
discussion of the Oxford Group and the Four Absolutes, see Dick B., The
Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works New
Rev. ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 237-46.

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About Me

Richard G. Burns holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Stanford University where he was Case Editor of the Stanford Law Review. He was a Phi Beta Kappa in his Junior Year at UC Berkeley. There he received an A.A. degree in economics with Honorable Mention. He was an Information and Education Specialist in the United States Army where he held the rank of Sgt. He attended the information-education school at Washington & Lee University. He practiced law in California from 1951 to 1986. He was president of the Corte Madera Chamber of Commerce, Corte Madera Center Merchants Council, Mill Valley Community Church, Redwoods Retirement Center, and Almonte District Improvemen Club. Also elected Director of the Almonte Sanitary District. He is a writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible student, CDAAC, and active recovered member of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous with continuous sobriety beginning April 21, 1986.

He writes under the pen name Dick B. He has devoted 24 years to researching the history and successes of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship in Akron; and published 46 titles, more than 1450 articles, and materials on Facebook, Twitter, MauiHistorian.Blogspot.com, Alcoholics Anonymous History.com, In the Rooms, Linked-in, Tumbler, MauiHistorian.Word Press.com, Aa Historian WordPress.com, AA History with Dick B. on cyber recovery social, Dick B. YouTube Channel, Articles Base, GoArticles.com, SearchWarp, Self Growth Experts, Social network forums on International Christian Recovery Coalition Forums, Recovery Internet Fellowship, Cyber Recovery, Daily Recovery, Christian Recovery Ministries, radio, TV, and over 70 audio blogs on the history subject. He regularly conducts radio interviews of Christian Recovery Leaders and Workers on www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.

He is Executive Director of the International Christian Recovery Coalition and of Freedom Ranch Maui Incorporated. He is an Advisor to God's Way Ministry, a Christian Church and is also a consultant to Wyoming Pacific Oil Company. Listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Law, Who's Who in Finance, and Gale's Contemporary Authors